Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Some local journalists expressed surprise tonight that New York State Education Commissioner John King sends his kids to private school.

What do they expect? That the commissioner would treat his kids differently than Bill and Hillary Clinton, who sent Chelsea to the exclusive Sidwell Friends School in Washington?

Any differently than President and Mrs. Obama? At about the time the President, an old preppie himself, killed a voucher program allowing poor minority students in Washington to escape the DC school system, he was enrolling Malia and Sasha in private school.

Differently than liberal actor Matt Damon, who vocally protests reform of failing public schools while sending his own kids to private school?

Any differently than 38% of public school teachers in the Rochester Central School District?

You read it right.

What group, by occupation, sends its children to private schools at levels disproportionately higher than the population as a whole? Answer: Teachers in public schools.

A 2004 study tells the story. For the U.S. population as a whole, 12.2 percent of all families send their children to private schools. Nationwide, public school teachers are almost twice as likely as other parents to choose private schools for their own children. In some cities, nearly half of the children of public school teachers have abandoned public schools.

In Philadelphia, 44 percent of the teachers put their children in private schools; in Cincinnati, 41 percent; Chicago, 39 percent; Rochester, 38 percent; Baltimore, 35 percent; San Francisco-Oakland, 34 percent; New York City and New Jersey suburbs, 33 percent; Milwaukee and New Orleans, 29 percent; Washington, D.C, 28 percent.

So don't be shocked that New York State's Education Commissioner does the same.